This disclosure relates to water play equipment with dynamic, custom-designed waterworks, sometimes referred to as spray grounds or water parks.
One preferred manner of manufacturing water play equipment uses a fiberglass and mat construction to form a desired shape. The molded components are trimmed and structural adhesive is used to bond the parts together. A filament wound or fiberglass pipe is often used, and the pipe is inserted into purchased flanges. Larger bent pipes or domes are typically outsourced products. The water is distributed through the water feature by either flooding the fiberglass outer pipe or hose(s) inside the fiberglass outer pipe.
It becomes necessary to hide or disguise the seams between separately molded components. The assembly is primed, and all the pin holes are filled, as is common when working with fiberglass. A body fill material is then applied, the surface is scuffed, and then primed again. Subsequently, nozzles, sensors, internal plumbing, etc. are installed. The assembly is wrapped, crated, and shipped to its final destination for installation on-site. This is, unfortunately, the conventional manner of creating customized shapes and is a labor intensive manufacturing process to achieve these customized shapes. Also, the assemblies are often quite large and thus expensive to ship in an assembled state.
Other manufacturers start with a stainless steel pipe, and then bend the pipe to a desired shape. Again, the process is labor intensive and still results in large components that are expensive to ship. However, the ability to make customized shapes is substantially unavailable since the final structure is limited to the shape of the pipes. For example, boats, animals, slides, plants, creative characters, fire hydrants, domes, creature features, showers, water jets, dumping troughs and buckets, water curtains, misting areas (any or all of which may include integrated lights and/or integrated sounds), etc. have external surfaces that often are not conducive to being made with tubular or pipe-like shapes or configurations, and thus the tubular/pipe-like shapes severely limit the surface configuration of final components.
Consequently, a need exists for a simpler manufacturing process, particularly one that does not require as much skill, to form a wide array of external shapes that convey water through an inner passage. An added benefit is desired in order to easily assemble individual components one to the other (particularly after shipping), thereby reducing shipping costs, ease of final assembly, and the ability to mix and match different parts for initial assembly as well as repair and replacement.